Just Finished Reading the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is the first novel in a trilogy with the same name.  It is in the science fiction/adventure/young adult genre of fiction and involves another of those strange, dystopian societies of the future which develops following a cataclysmic apocalypse.  North America is divided into twelve districts, tightly controlled and oppressed by the dominant center (around Denver) called The Capitol.  In the past, the districts had rebelled against their rule and, after having been conquered (and a thirteenth district completely obliterated), an annual punishment was set up to remind them of their subservient status.  Each year, each district is to supply, by the drawing of a teenage boy and a teenage girl as "tributes" to play against those selected from the other districts in a contest-to-the-death, called the "Hunger Games", in which the lone survivor brings material prosperity to their home district.  The story, written in the first person by protagonist Katniss Everdeen, describes how her little sister is selected and she volunteers to stand in for her as a contestant.  Katniss is in District 12, corresponding roughly to Appalachia, and in which the main economy is coal mining.  She is an expert hunter with the bow and arrow and is at home in the forest.  This will do well for her in the struggle to come. 

The Hunger Games are not just a matter of survival against others: the Capitol leaders have made this event into a highly political national media extravaganza, with the entrants treated like celebrities and coached into how to present themselves to the public...even in the middle of their desperate fight for survival.  There is obviously something highly allegorical about all of this...I don't think I'll have to wait too long before some of this sinks in for me.  I already have a couple of ideas: one concerns society's almost obscene fixation on reality television with its characters and their contrived personalities and relationships, and the other concerns the truly obscene specter of young people in economically depressed areas feeling compelled to enlist in the military and go off to war just to be able to make a living.

The characters in The Hunger Games are quite compelling and unforgettable.  I haven't seen the movie version yet and now look forward to seeing how it portrays them.  But regardless how it all turns out, I don't think I will be satisfied at the end of this trilogy if the Capitol and its despicable despots aren't completely and utterly wiped out...